Oleg Rumyantsev wakes up at 6:15 a.m. to the sounds of Ekho Moskvy radio,brews himself a cup of coffee, puts on a tailored suit and slides into hisFord Taurus to drive to work.

Once he walked the corridors of political power and was called Russia'sJames Madison for his efforts to give the country a democraticconstitution. These days, though, he works at Mars, promoting the interestsof the U.S. confectionery and pet-food giant.

As a young parliament member and legal scholar, Rumyantsev had drafted aversion of a new constitution for a new Russia. But that was a decade ago.

His current job as Russia and CIS regional director of external relationsfor Mars, he says, is just as exciting and just as political.

"I stayed in politics — I participate in the Foreign Investment Council,meet with my former colleagues who have become ministers — so my work isnot any less political," he says.

After graduating from Moscow State University and the Moscow Institute forLegal Studies, Rumyantsev was elected in 1990 to the Congress of People'sDeputies of Russia.

His knowledge of Jeffersonian principles and his passion for developingparticipatory democracy led to an opportunity to begin work onconstitutional reform.

Rumyantsev was named secretary of the Constitutional Commission, which wasformed in June of that year under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin and hisdeputy Ruslan Khasbulatov. Khasbulatov took over as head of the Congress'permanent legislature, the Supreme Soviet, when Yeltsin was electedpresident of Russia in June 1991.

In the early 1990s, Rumyantsev remained loyal to Yeltsin and believed inhis reform plans. But as the work on the constitution drafts continued, hegrew increasingly critical.

"How could I not when he [Yeltsin] legitimized the worst characteristics ofSoviet communist excesses in the framework of government policy?"Rumyantsev says.

By 1993, he had allied himself with Khasbulatov and produced a draftconstitution calling for a parliamentary system. Rumyantsev's mainobjection to Yeltsin's constitutional proposals was that they concentratedpower in the executive branch.

Peter Reddaway, a Russian historian at Georgetown University and co-authorof a new book titled "Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market BolshevismAgainst Democracy," said Rumyantsev's opposition to the president reachedits culminating point when Yeltsin signed a decree on Sept. 21, 1993,disbanding the Congress of People's Deputies.

"That decree was the biggest single factor," Reddaway said in a telephoneinterview. "He must have felt it undermined the constitutional basis forRussia's democracy."

When members of Congress put up armed resistance, Yeltsin crushed theirrebellion by ordering tanks to shell the parliament building on Oct. 4.

"Rumyantsev, a scholar-politician in his 30s who had gone from supportingYeltsin to standing side by side with the nationalists in the parliament,tried to negotiate a settlement to the crisis," David Remnick wrote in his1997 book "Resurrection."

"But Rumyantsev found himself in danger," said Remnick, who was aWashington Post correspondent at the time.

Alpha troops took him to the courtyard of a nearby building. According toRumyantsev, a drunken soldier grabbed his beard and hit him in the face andthen searched him for money, Remnick wrote. "When the soldier discovered noriches on Rumyantsev, he beat him some more."

Just two months after the fateful October events, Yeltsin producedelections to a new bicameral parliament and a simultaneous referendum on anew constitution.

The final version of the Constitution excluded the lion's share ofRumyantsev's recommendations, said Victor Sheinis, a constitutional expertat the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. "It would befair to call him an author of one of the proposed drafts, which acted as asource for the final version, but not of the Constitution we currently liveby," Sheinis said.

Rumyantsev says the 1993 Constitution restored an authoritarian system andfailed to ensure the truly democratic procedures that could have preventedmany of the abuses of the last decade.

For instance, his proposed constitution would have prevented the unfairprivatizations orchestrated by the oligarchs, he says. A system of checksand balances would have assured there would be "no Black Tuesdays,financial defaults or arbitration court decisions to bankrupt companies ondemand."

Sergei Markov, a political analyst who runs the pro-Kremlin web siteStrana.ru, said although he doubted Rumyantsev's proposed constitutionwould have stopped the privatization of the country's largest enterprises,it may have helped prevent a war. "We would have had no Chechnya because aparliament with a lot of executive power, which Rumyantsev was advocating,would not have allowed Yeltsin to make decisions on a whim," Markov said.

"He was a bright star, a darling of the Western media, a person withextraordinary potential," Markov said of Rumyantsev. "But he fell victim tothe political mill, which crushed him and threw him out."

After he turned against Yeltsin, Rumyantsev says he found himself on thepresident's black list and could not find work in Russia. He went abroad toteach at the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics.

He returned in the fall of 1995 and made a few attempts to re-enter thepolitical scene, as legal consultant to the State Duma and as a secretaryin the parliamentary assembly of Russia and Belarus.

But then Rumyantsev decided to put his own theories about democracy in afree-market economy into practice. When Mars offered him a job in 1998 tohelp it navigate Russia's muddy political waters, he accepted.

"Coming to Mars was my personal reincarnation," he says. "I shaved mybeard, threw away the old address book, and started a new life."

Rumyantsev shows no traces of regret or self-pity as he talks about histrajectory from a prominent political figure to executive of a chocolateconglomerate.

"The world's leading transnational corporation with a strong internalculture, Mars was the best university I could find, and I didn't even haveto leave the country," he says. "I feel connected to a large, growingorganism."

Thanks in part to Rumyantsev's political connections, Mars not only stayed,but prospered on the Russian market.

"We don't give bribes — ever." Rumyantsev says, his eyes shining withpride. "I work my connections, capitalize on people's disagreements, anduse my own good reputation and the good name of the company to reach thenecessary goals."

While Rumyantsev insists he is perfectly content in his current position,others aren't so sure.

"When I met him a few weeks ago, he couldn't stop talking about beingdisappointed with politics, and I realized he was trying to convincehimself of that," Markov said.

"He is a typical homopoliticus — I think he is bored in business."

Rumyantsev admits that some time in the future he may consider testing thepolitical waters one more time, if he could be sure of a leading role. "Icould not stand being second in politics," he says.